JENNIFER MACARTHUR

Jennifer MacArthur is a multi-platform communications, distribution and engagement strategist with a focus on social issue documentary. Her background spans nearly 20 years working in radio, film and television, digital media and publishing. In 2008 she founded Borderline Media. Borderline's strategic design work includes campaigns for Almost Sunrise (in production); Cocaine Prison (in production); Out in the Night (POV, 2015); The Widowmaker (Film Buff, 2015); Southern Rites (HBO, 2015); Emmy® nominated Gideon’s Army(HBO, 2013), which premiered in US Documentary Competition at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and won the Editing Award; and Emmy® nominated Traces of the Trade (POV, 2008).

Previously as Director of TV + Digital Media Engagement at the National Center for Media Engagement (NCME), she coached public television stations on the PBS initiatives American Graduate and Women and Girls Lead, including Half the Sky, and the Not In Our Town Building Inclusive Communities Initiative. Jennifer also spearheaded NCME’s National Impact Partnership with ITVS Community Cinema, providing programmatic support for the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons. In addition she served on the strategic advisory board for WQED’s iQ:smartmedia transmedia initiative, and was a reviewer for CPB’s Diversity and Innovation Fund. For NPR Jennifer produced the Storycorps Griot mobile tour in partnership with the National Museum of African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian. She also has held positions at Link TV, Scholastic Entertainment and Village Voice Media.

As a sought-after expert on media engagement Jennifer has been an invited industry guest, including: TFI New Media Fund grantee retreat; TFI Industry Meetings; Sheffield Doc/Fest MeetMarket and Cross Market Forum; CPH:DOX’s F:ACT Award jury, SWIM and Film Forums; BFI Power to the Pixel; Ambulante Film Festival & Interactive Conference; Good Pitch NY Campaign Development Workshop; BRITDOC Impact Award peer review committee; MIT Open Doc Lab Summit; and the CPB and Sundance Institute Documentary Program Roundtable on Diversity. She has also produced workshops for Firelight Media Producers Lab, ITVS Community Cinema, CPB/PBS Producers Academy and the SilverDocs International Documentary Conference.

Jennifer is deeply committed to social impact media and the work of independent strategists who produce impact campaigns. With the non-profit media company Civic Bakery she established the global peer support network Impact Producers Group, and launched Impact Socials, a networking event for creative change-makers. Borderline has co-hosted Impact Social events with IFP and POV, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program and Skoll Foundation, Active Voice and BAVC, Working Films and the Cucalorus Film Festival, and BRITDOC.

An emerging thought-leader in the field, she has participated in numerous convenings on social impact media, and across multiple sectors, including Media Impact Funders' IMPACT FORUMS, TFI’s Interactive Media Impact Convening, NEH's Impact Workshop and The Center for Investigative Reporting's DISSECTION: IMPACT series. In 2012 Jennifer was one of 12 senior film professionals selected by BRITDOC to participate in their Impact Producers retreat, and their inaugural Impact Distribution Lab. Jennifer is also a member of the Interactive Media Impact Group, a project of the Tribeca Film Institute and MIT's Open Doc Lab.

Jennifer is a graduate of The New School film program. She lives and works in Brooklyn, USA.

"It has been one of the most enlightening and inspiring panels we've ever had at Ambulante. And Jennifer is a fantastic speaker!"

Elena Fortes / Director, Ambulante Film Festival

"Jennifer deftly managed a multitude of partners and complex deliverables during the beta testing phase of the social TV player OVEE, created by ITVS. Her deep commitment to the project surfaced again and again through smart contributions that fell well outside her contracted scope of work."

Pamm Higgins / Vice President, Independent Television Service (ITVS)

"Impact Socials are a groundbreaking networking concept that fills a necessary void in the cultural and media marketplace. Creative progressive change is the new frontier across many industries and this event provides a curated meeting place to serve as an incubator for new ideas and collaborations."